I grew up as far away from Downton Abbey as one can get. I was raised in a working class row house, with three generations and one bathroom. As I said, not exactly Downton Abbey. My dad was the child of immigrants and English was not his first language. My mother's family came to this country after the French Revolution. Evidently they didn't like how things were going for them over there so they decamped to New Orleans. She grew up quite differently. From her I learned that one wears only three pieces of jewelry at a time, white or bone shoes are only worn after Memorial day and up until Labor Day. No patent leather if you are not a child. A lady always wears gloves and hats and a lot of other useless information that didn't go with my station in life. It's hard to be elegant, when there's lines for the bathroom in ones own home.
Mom's family didn't like my dad's family of socialist trade unionists and so she got "cut off." Meanwhile, before the wedding they gave her a full set of dishes, finger bowls, compote dishes, claret glasses etc for 12. I am now wondering if they were trolling her, giving her this stuff she'd never get much use of, all of which I ended up inheriting. Dishes and glasses. That's what's left behind. All of it having to be hand washed. I don't use it often but it's the only souvenir of my moms family I have, so I bought some boxes and I kept it. I've only used it a few times, one Easter dinner, and for Christmas once.
The stuff didn't mean anything to mom, she was more interested in Big Top Peanut Butter and as the empty jars could be turned into...wait for it, Fancy Pants Goblets!!!
Needless to say we ate a LOT of peanut butter to get mom her set of glasses while the real deal was sitting in a box. After seeing endless ads for the Downton Abbey movie on TV and online, I figured now is the perfect time to break out some of mom's/grandma's old stuff. I was watching a PBS show on amazon prime Fannies Last Supper about a dinner that was served, reproduced from the Fannie Farmer Cookbook from the 1880's. I was intrigued, so I looked up the Fannie Farmer Cookbook online and there it was, the palate cleanser served between the canvas back duck and the sturgeon. Canton Sorbet.
Canton Sorbet is a gingery citrus sorbet that is stupid easy to prepare, and forget the palate cleanser. It can be served as a refreshing dessert, as I have been fresh out of canvas back duck and sturgeon for let's say...my entire life! It's really delicious, especially on a warm summer night. I haven't served this to any kids yet but I'd think they'd enjoy it too. So here goes.
Canton Sorbet
Here's What You Need:
4 cups of water1/4 lb Canton ginger...aka regular ginger don't let the appelation fool ya.
1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of fresh squeezed orange juice
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
Here's What To Do:
slice the ginger thinly and cut it into small pieces and set aside.Squeeze the orange juice and set aside.
Squeeze the lemon juice and set aside.
Pour the 4 cups of water into a large pot.
Add in the cut up pieces of ginger, stir everything together well.
Bring to a boil, and let it boil for 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes, take the pot off the stove and add in the orange and lemon juice.
Let the mixture cool to room temperature, then strain it.
Pour the strained liquid sorbet into molds.
You can use any old thing as a mold. I happened to have these silicon molds hanging around and found a good use for them.
Pop the whole thing to the freezer.
When ready to serve, un-mold.
And finally the capper, pour room temperature champagne or prosecco over the sorbet...
...and serve it up. I advise room temperature champagne or Prosecco because it will unfreeze the sorbet a bit and make it easier to eat.
Elegant, easy, just what the Dowanger Countess ordered, and now you can too.
I haven't blogged as much the last several months as we've been trying to get the current project we're writing turn-in-able, but I have been cooking and Alan's been taking pictures and so I have a whole lot of things ready on the runway to share. Coming up next, eggplant, scallops and shrimp with coconut rice. This is a very simple yet tasty weekday lunch or dinner which looks a lot fancier then it is to make which is why it's in our family's meal rotation.
So follow along on twitter @kathygori
Beautiful! We're going to see the film next week for my birthday. Will have to break out the champagne. :-)
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